Hailing from Guangdong and originally known as “Royal Tea”, it has caused long queues when it opened in other major cities of Beijing and Shanghai,

When I say “long”, it means a couple of hours long.

Hey Tea is said to have a “cult following”, and other famous bubble tea brands do not even enjoy such popularity in China.

In fact, there was a review I read that went, ”Gong Cha is officially dead.”

Singapore’s outlet is its official first shop overseas.

Now you may wonder, ”Haven’t I seen Hey Tea around before?”

Its explosive popularity has caused spin-offs of similar looking and sounding brands, with that logo of a boy having a drink being ‘copied’ several times. I am sure you had seen something that looked alike somewhere. (I won’t name them.)

Hey Tea is the real McCoy.

So when I visited Beijing’s Sanlitun outlet, I was surprised at its very long queue, despite being opened for a relative long period of time.

There were several scalpers around that sold the drinks at a much more expensive price, so that you could skip the queue. But please don’t go to them.

It took me about 45 minutes before I got my drinks, during an off-peak weekday. This is while every customer had a limit of 3 cups they could buy.

I must say I was impressed with its branding and décor, with the servers dressed in barista-style uniform, interior decorated in black, and takeaway cups served in matching black paper bags that reminded me of Zara’s.

Its Cheese Tea come in various offerings, with Tea King (金凤茶王) and Seasons Tea (四季春) being the most popular, priced at RMB20 – 30 (SGD4 – 6).

Once the first few sips, I realised why the tea could be so popular – it tasted higher quality, freshly brewed was refreshingly pure.

Plus, it didn’t have those strong bitter undertones.

The salty cheese was a beautiful complement, as it wasn’t too rich or cloying, so much so that you could drink it on its own by tipping the cup slightly.